1. While many headlines still resonate with regards to Europe, this will be the year that China allows their currency to rise more substantially, either as a result of international or domestic pressures. This increase will more accurately reflect its true value, and will be a step towards allowing the Renminbi to be traded in international currency markets.
2. Both the DOW and the S&P 500 will trade within a narrow range until roughly mid-year, much to the consternation of investors. By summer, however, they will have begun increasing steadily, closing out the year with double-digit percentage increases.
3. One of the best performing sectors will be large-cap multi-nationals and industrials. As China revalues its currency, products made in America will be cheaper for China's consumers. More specifically, the companies whose stocks that will perform well are those companies that will profit from selling goods, not only overseas, but specifically to China.
4. A new U.S. manufacturing base will begin to emerge. The old "smokestack" image will be replaced with newer high-tech manufacturing, discouraging laid-off blue-collar workers as they realize they lack the necessary skills and education to regain their old positions.
5. Housing prices will continue to neither fall nor rise as they finally find firm footing. With over 18 million unoccupied homes (this includes over 4 million second/vacation homes, making the real number closer to 14 million), there remains too much inventory for prices to improve nationally. Most 5/1 ARMs were completed in 2005 and 2006, and, because they reset after five years, most mortgages did so in 2010 and 2011 -- which means most of the bad news is behind us.
6. Another winning sector will be biotech, as large pharmaceutical companies look to fill their pipeline, and do so through acquisition of small biotech firms.
7. The U.S. economy will start to pick up steam towards the end of the year, with 3rd quarter GDP numbers closing in on 4%.
8. Greece will drop out of the European Union, reintroduce their currency, the Drachma, which will eventually trade at roughly 50% of its former value.
9. Unemployment will continue to slowly decline, ending the year close to 8%, as more baby boomers retire and drop out of the labor pool.
10. Having already shimmied out onto this very thin limb, I will now predict the outcome of our national election, knowing that I have a 50/50 chance of getting this once correct. President Obama will win re-election. Presently, the Electoral College votes are evenly split, with only 12 states left to determine the next president. In the last election, all 12 states were counted for Obama.

Here are this week's talking points: the right thing to say when trying to make a point.

1. "When everyone is guilty, no one is guilty."

   -Friedrich Nietzsche, 1895

2. Americans waste an estimated 30% of their food available for consumption.  This works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.

   -Stanford University, Sept 27, 2011

3.  "When I feel the need to exercise, I lie down and that feeling goes away."

   -Winston Churchill

4. In a Federal Reserve survey of 3,500 people, the respondents were asked the question, "If you had money left over after your expenses at the end of the month, what do you think the wisest thing to do with it nowadays: Put it in the bank, buy government bonds, invest in real estate or buy common stock?"  The responses were: 49% preferred buying government bonds while equities finished last with only 6% preferring buying common stock.  However, the survey was not from this year or last, it was taken in 1951.

   -The Wall Street Journal,   Sept 10, 2010

5. "It's discouraging to think how many people are shocked by honesty, and how few by deceit."

   -Noel Coward 

6.  There have been as many as 47 recessions in the United States since 1790.

             -ServingHistory.com

7. To be counted among the world's richest 1%, a single individual has to earn just $34,000 a year. Members of the planet's true middle class, meanwhile, live on just $1,225 a year.
             -CNN.com